Films based on literary works in 2014

2014 has quite a few interesting big screen adaptations of literary works and some old formulae as usual

Every year has its share of ups and downs. Last year too saw some bold moves from the filmmakers’ end and that trend is bound to continue in the future. As a consequence, borrowing a book to make a movie has become one of the most promising trends. 2014 will witness quite a few of them. HitList pinpoints the relatively bigger projects in this particular genre...

'Detective Byomkesh Bakshi'Director: Dibakar BanerjeeStoryline: Based on one of the 33 crime thrillers written by renowned Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandopadhyay, the comedy/drama will see Sushant Singh Rajput in a pivotal role playing a shrewd detective. Exploring the whodunnit genre on the streets of the charming Kolkata (read: Calcutta), this endeavour too has a metropolitan city at its heart. Known for his rather minimalistic approach towards filmmaking, this upcoming film is Dibakar’s most expensive project so far.

'Bombay Velvet'Director: Anurag KashyapStoryline: This ambitious film is a drama noir based on historian Gyan Prakash's Mumbai Fables -- a take of how Mumbai became a metropolis against the backdrop of love, greed, violence and jazz music. Goes without saying that the subject line is probably the first of its kind. With Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma in lead roles and Karan Johar playing the villain, the buzz for this adaptation is strong for a December release.

'Haider'Director: Vishal BhardwajStoryline: Thanks to his brilliance in Omkara and Maqbool, one can always expect Bhardwaj to do justice to a Shakespearean theme. This thriller, based on the play Hamlet, has Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor (their first onscreen outing) along with Irrfan Khan and Tabu (their fourth). With the early production stage marredby controversies, the end product would hopefully be worth the wait.

'2 States'Director: Abhishek VarmanStoryline: Author Chetan Bhagat has penned six books so far and three of them had been adapted for movies. 2 States is the fourth one on the list. Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and Karan Johar (their first co-production till date), the forthcoming drama stars Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt as protagonists. The romantic plot is expected to revolve around a couple’s lingual and cultural distinctions in spite of belonging to one nation.

'Mohalla Assi'Director: Chandra Prakash DwivediStoryline: A decade after Pinjar (2003), Dwivedi’s next feature film too is based on a book -- Dr. Kashinath Singh’s novel Kashi Ka Assi. The project got delayed in between but is all set to release in 2014. Sunny Deol plays an orthodox Sanskrit teacher while Sakshi Tanwar plays his wife.

Untitled projectsProducer: Matchbox FilmsStoryline: A fast-paced suspense tale set in today’s India, this upcoming film is based on a story in Vikas Swarup’s The Accidental Apprentice.

Swarup earlier wrote Q&A which went on to inspire Slumdog Millionaire and its unprecedented Oscar conquest. Agent Vinod director Sriram Raghavan is scripting and directing as well.

Producer: Sheetal TalwarStoryline: Jeffrey Archer's Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less and Kane Able went on to ‘inspire’ movies like Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl and Khudgarz but none of this work were officially bought for adaptation.

This was before Talwar did so by gaining the film rights of his novel First Among Equals and a short story titled A La Carte from his collection of short stories A Twist In The Tale.

Producer: Karan JoharStoryline: The first novel of the Shiva trilogy series by Amish Tripathi, this mega project helmed by Karan Johar is said to have the successful director-actor due of Mukerji and Ranbir Kapoor.

However, the production is yet to go on floors. The book is set in the land of Meluha and starts with the arrival of the Tibetan tribal Shiva. Imagine a mortal God. That’s the closest you can get to the protagonist. Interesting enough.

Producer: Nikhil AdvaniStoryline: The director of memorable movies like Kal Ho Naa Ho and D-Day has been nurturing a decade-long dream of adapting Louisa May Alcott's Little Women into a full-length Hindi feature film.

Saurabh Shukla was supposed to pen the script. If things fall into place, 2014 will end the long wait.

Same differenceFor good or for bad, remakes seldom go out of fashion...

Salman Khan and Daisy Shah

>> Salman Khan’s first major release in about one and a half year, Jai Ho, is a remake of the Telugu film Stalin which starred Chiranjeevi in the lead role.

Raj Kumar

>> Hansal Mehta’s City Lights is an official adaptation of Britain's Oscar entry Metro Manila. It stars his blue-eyed actor Raj Kumar again.

Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif

>> Traffic, starring Manoj Bajpayee and Jimmy Sheirgill, is an upcoming thriller as well as a remake of the 2011 Malayalam film by the same title.>> Siddharth Raj Anand’s Bang Bang with Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif in lead roles is an official remake of the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz starrer Knight and Day.>> Sajid Nadiadwala’s debut directorial venture Kick (starring Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez) is a remake of a Telugu film by the same name.